Human Rights Watch released a report on violence against elderly people in armed conflict, based on research in 14 countries.

The report finds that government forces and armed groups have unlawfully killed and subjected older civilians to summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, rape, and the destruction of their property.

Once displaced, older people have faced further attacks and barriers to humanitarian assistance. The report said: “Government forces and non-state armed groups have raped and committed other sexual violence against older women. In South Sudan, a rape survivor in her late 50s said that during government operations against rebel forces in February 2019, a soldier made her carry looted property, beat her with a gun, and raped her repeatedly.

Armies, militias, and rebel forces have destroyed and looted older people’s property. Older people have described the devastation of losing everything they have spent their lives working towards. In May 2021, Israeli military airstrikes destroyed four high-rise buildings in Gaza City that contained many homes and businesses. Jawad Mahdi, 68, an owner of a destroyed building who lived there with dozens of family members, said: “All these years of hard work, it was a place of living, safety, children and grandchildren, all our history and life, destroyed in front of your eyes. … It’s like someone ripping your heart out and throwing it.”

During hostilities, older people have chosen not to flee their homes when fighting neared. They thought they would not be attacked, or wanted to protect their family’s property, or had suffered physically or emotionally from fleeing earlier attacks. In many other instances, older people have been unable to flee because of limited mobility, disability, or because families could not assist their flight. In 2017, Rohingya who fled Myanmar security force atrocities in Rakhine State described security forces pushing older people who could not flee back into burning houses. “I saw them push my husband’s uncle into the fire. I saw them push him back into the burning house,” Hasina Begum said. “He is weak, maybe 80 years [old]… I think they wanted everyone to leave and those that could not leave they put into the fire.” https://www.hrw.org/report/2022/02/23/no-one-spared/abuses-against-older-people-armed-conflict#:~:text=No%20One%20is%20Spared,-Abuses%20Against%20Older&text=All%20parties%20to%20armed%20conflict,armed%20conflict%20in%20its%20work.

Aljazeera/Human Rights Watch.